1. Field
This invention relates to hand gloves, specifically insulated gloves for use by the wearer in cold weather.
2. State of the Art
Hand gloves are well-known in the art. In a typical construction, a glove includes a pair of flexible, fabric sheets having the general shape and dimensions of the wearer's hand. The sheets are positioned approximately parallel and are joined to each other along their edge by stitching to define a substantially enclosed chamber. The chamber is accessed through an opening dimensioned to receive the wearer's hand. Generally, some gloves may have an elastic collar about the opening so that the opening may expand to permit the larger portion of the wearer's hand to enter the chamber. Upon the hand being substantially enclosed by the chamber, the opening contracts about the wearer's wrist so as to essentially restrict air flow from the environment into the chamber.
Some gloves further include an individual chamber or cover to receive each finger and the thumb (generally all called fingers) of the wearer's hand.
Gloves are typically used by the wearer to protect the wearer's hands from contacting contaminants. In cold weather, the wearer may also use gloves to insulate his hands from the effects of a lowered temperature environment, i.e. the gloves are used to retain the body heat, radiated or otherwise transferred from the hands, within the glove chamber proximate the hand itself, thus preventing a radical depression of the hand's temperature and the physical damage resulting therefrom.
In providing a glove with insulating characteristics, several considerations must be reviewed. First, the wearer's hands must retain a considerable amount of freedom of movement. Oftimes, the wearer is required to perform tasks outdoors requiring considerable manual dexterity; for example, in outdoor sporting activities such as skiing. Any restriction in that dexterity operates to lessen the value of the glove to the user. Dexterity usually requires enabling each of the wearer's fingers to move functionally in a manner independent of the motion of the other fingers. It follows that finger-style gloves are generally preferred over the so-called fingerless or mitten-type glove.
Also, the glove should exhibit good insulation qualities, i.e. an ability to establish a barrier having low thermal conductivity between the wearer's hand and the environment. This thermal conductivity or insulative quality is generally defined in the art as the barrier's "R" factor. The capacity of a thermal barrier to retard heat transfer is directly proportional to the amount of surface area a barrier presents to the lower temperature environment; i.e., the greater the surface area, the more extensive the heat loss. Recognizably, a fingered glove, due to the surface area of the barrier required to encase each finger, typically presents a larger heat transfer surface than a non-fingered glove. Further, owing to the high surface to volume ratio presented by each finger, considerable attention must be paid to providing an adequate thermal barrier should the glove be expected to prove adequate for any extended exposure to low temperature environments.
Oftimes the wearer is required to engage in physically strenuous outdoor activities. This exertion results in the generation of perspiration on the wearer's hands. Absent a means of withdrawing this moisture, the interior of the glove is soon saturated. Not only does this saturation produce discomfort for the wearer, but furthermore, the moisture draws heat from the wearer's hand when it evaporates, thereby lowering the wearer's hand temperature. Also, the inside of the glove may become damp through the wearer taking off the glove in a snowstorm and reinserting wet hands into the glove.
Further, the wearer must oftimes remain outdoors in rain or snow. To keep dry, the gloves must be resistant to moisture or water penetration from the environment.
Attempts in the art to satisfy effectively each of the above criteria have not met with success. Prior glove constructions have typically been able to optimize effectiveness in one criteria only by depreciating effectiveness in another criteria. For example, water resistancy has been obtained in some glove constructions by fabricating the glove from a rubber or rubber-like material having a high impermeability to water. Though these gloves proved highly resistant to exterior moisture, the moisture produced inside of the glove, i.e. by the wearer's sweat, was trapped within the glove and thereafter contributed to considerable discomfort for the wearer.
There exists a need for a glove which is wind-and water-resistant, and capable of effectively insulating the wearer's hand from heat loss, while permitting the wearer substantially undiminished manual dexterity. Furthermore, the glove should have means for absorbing moisture produced on the surface of the wearer's hand and expelling that moisture through the glove.